Good morning…
In her text yesterday she made reference to her all time favorite blog post. I dug around and found it. I first shared this message with our online community on my birthday, March 23rd, in 2015.
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Welcome Aboard the Train of Life by Sue Allen
When we are born, our Creator pushes us from the womb into the world. “Welcome aboard the train of life!” Our inner circle expands from God’s constant care to include the presence of our earthly parents. As wide-eyed kids, we naively believe that our mom and dad will always be traveling on the cushioned seat beside us. Yet at some station down the track, each of our parents will step down from the train, leaving us with God’s inner strength to carry on. As time chugs along, other people board life’s train, and they too become our dearly loved ones. Our siblings and our friends, our teachers and our mentors, our soulmates and our children join us on our unique journey down life’s rickety tracks.
None of us stays on earth’s train forever; this is an unavoidable fact. As loved ones step down, they leave an aching void. Other people exit unnoticed, less missed. Offering a panoramic perspective, life’s train climbs up gorgeous mountains and descends lonesome valleys. Each trip around the track of life is chocked full of joys and sorrows, hopes and hurts, hellos and goodbyes. Living well means developing vibrant relationships with a wide variety of fellow passengers, welcoming new people, often and open-heartedly, while investing in old relationships, sturdy and strong. If we give freely to others our God-given best, we will eventually step down from earth’s train without regret.
Every one of us rides into the unsettled unknown. We have no idea when it will be our turn to leave the familiarity of our cozy seat. There is nothing better to do than to live each day loving and forgiving, sharing and enjoying, wide-open and well-grounded. When it comes our time to exit earth’s train, we want beautiful memories to linger long with those continuing down life’s bumpy track.
So I perceived that there was nothing better for human beings but to enjoy what they do because that’s what they’re allotted in life. Who, really, is able to see what will happen in the future? (Ecclesiastes 3:22, CEB). Live life aware. Travel in truth. Express gratitude often. Someday we will all experience a brief season of separation until we reunite on heaven’s higher ground.
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“Your posts about friendship have been meaningful,” said her text. “As you know, I have stepped into another new train car in recent months. Some friends are still in other cars for now, some have gotten off at stations where my journey will not pause. As I work to treasure friendships for the time and purpose God placed them in my life (and in their travels), I find myself melancholy at moments and then thankful on many levels.”
- God had our paths cross for purposes I can see now. They were not forever friends – I merely a sojourner (or maybe they that in my world). Yet God has called me forward – to move to a different car.
- I release confusion and hurt (and anger) to God so thankful that He has showed me a new occasion to pray for others. I am simply thankful for what they once meant and know that I need to step away because God has others for me to engage with.
- In Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes: “I shall ask into my shell only those friends with whom I can be completely honest. I am shedding hypocrisy in human relationships.” What a lesson. Be courageous, do not dismay. God planted seeds that have grown, and I must be true to my beliefs and what I see in the world. To bury that in a time when a world is in distress is not honest or true of me.
- And finally, I wait expectantly. God is bringing people in for this new chapter. Some, like you, remain close and dear. Some are new – students, colleagues, friends. How amazing that God gives us what and who we need for His purposes, for His work. To learn about others through deeper friendships with those we love and new relationships is a powerful affirmation of what He is entrusting to us.
“So, yes, our human heart aches for friends we miss, especially when relationships hurt,” she understands. “Yet, God brings new things to us – to enable us to create something new in ourselves and through the loving care we show to others.”
“Love to you, my friend,” she concluded. “What an insightful and powerful message you share in a difficult time in our world, when relationships are changing for a variety of reasons. Thinking of you. Keeping you in my prayers.”
“Your words hug me in a loving, tender way,” I texted back right away. “To be seen, affirmed, and understood means so much. In this clarifying time, some people are naturally dividing, disconnecting, dropping away, which is both sad and true. Yet there is generous opportunity for friends, old and new, who are drawn to journey with us into God’s spacious, spacious, spacious. You are always one of those for me who seems to be instep at every turn.”
A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity (Proverbs 17:17, NRSV).
…Sue…
